TV Salaries Leaked, Showing How Much Less Black Actors Are Paid

Are we surprised?

Although the media has come a long way with representation of people of color on screens, there’s still work to do.

Earlier this week, Variety published a list of Hollywood actors & their respective per-episode salaries, but unfortunately, minority actors make considerably less than white actors. According to reports, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson commands a whopping $400,000 per episode for HBO’s Ballers, but he’s also the highest paid actor in Hollywood.

The comedy salaries list revealed that the lowest paid star is Gina Rodriguez, whose role in Jane the Virgin won her the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy in 2015, over multi-time Emmy winner and fellow nominee Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Yet, according to Variety’s data, Rodriguez earns $60,000 an episode, while Louis-Dreyfus earns more than quadruple that figure, with $250,000 an episode.

The report also shows that stars of the Emmy Award nominated show Black-ish earn less than the stars of Modern Family, The Middle and Last Man Standing. Anthony Anderson gets $100,000 an episode, and Tracee Ellis Ross’ pay is $80,000; while The Middle’s Patricia Heaton and Standing ’s Tim Allen all earn $250,000 an episode. However, the drama salaries list has to have the largest pay gap.

Gilmore Girls’Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel earn about $750,000 per episode, while the Emmy Award-winning star of How to Get Away with Murder, Viola Davis, and Emmy-nominated star of Scandal, Kerry Washington, only earn $250,000. Even Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard, stars of the highest-rated drama on television, Fox’s Empire, are earning considerable less than their colleagues, with only $175,000 an episode while Their on-screen sons, Trai Byers, Jussie Smollett and Bryshere Y. Gray, are paid just $20,000 per episode.

Even after the “Oscars So White-gate” and the plea for diversity in Hollywood, minority actors are still treated as less valuable than their white colleagues. Unfortunately, the news doesn’t come as a surprise.